My flight from Madrid to Lima was uneventful, but as normal, I could not sleep on the plane. After twelve & a half hours in flight, the plane landed in Lima & I was glad to get off & to have arrived in Peru.
Arrival in Lima.
At immigration, I met a Peruvian gentleman who told me my immigration form was incomplete. He would not tell me where it was incomplete & made me go to the back of the queue & fill it in again. After checking with all the other passengers it was agreed by my fellow travellers that my immigration form was correct. I swiftly bypassed the immigration man I had previously seen & went straight through with no hassle. It would appear there are idiots in all ports of call in the world; their sole aim, it would appear, is to hassle & upset tired travellers.
The next step was baggage reclaim, my bag was first off the conveyor belt so that was a bonus & as I went through to the arrivals lounge I was met by a beautiful Peruvian lady, Rosario, who was to be my tour guide for the next two weeks. Unfortunately, eleven of the fourteen people on my plane, who were also on my tour, had their bags left in Madrid. After waiting another two hours for Peruvian customs to locate their bags in another airport, we continued to the hotel for a rest before our tour that afternoon, a tour of Lima.
In the afternoon, we had a tour of Lima, visiting the Plaza de Mayor. Around the square were the Cathedral of Lima & the Government Palace. I didn't dare ask why, but the guards around the Government Palace appeared to have damaged guns & wine corks plugging the barrels.
The Monastery of San Francisco was a short walk from the square & we had a look around this building & the catacombs below it. The Monastery was very impressive & had a great library, but I found the catacombs quite dull compared to the huge catacombs I have visited in Rome. The arranged bones made it look very organised & left me wondering if they had been laid out on display for tourists.
After a welcome drink back at the hotel, I went to a local sandwich shop for something to eat before returning to the hotel bar for a few beers. The majority of my fellow travellers had more bad news about their luggage & eventually had to return to the airport around 00:30 of day 3 to collect their luggage, not returning to the hotel until around 2:30 am.